Change What Your Power Button Does

It’s time to think outside the box on this tip. The power button on the front of your PC; what does it do? It tends to put my computer at home to sleep when I press it, but what if you’ve got other stuff you’d rather it be doing?

What about just shutting the system down? Perhaps you’d like it to make your PC hibernate? Shoot, what if you don’t want it to do anything at all?

Here’s the tip.

For Windows Vista and 7: Type “Powercfg.cpl” in the search box, minus the quotes. Once the PowerOptions window appears, click on “Choose what the power button does” off to the left. Here, you can assign a function to the power button and away you go!

For Windows XP: Click Start>Run and then type in “Powercfg.cpl”, once again, minus the quotes. Under the Advanced tab you’ll see options for how you want the power button to react to your press. Funny, though, that only XP gives you the option to have Windows ask you what you want to do when you press the button. This option is strangely absent in Vista. I guess Vista doesn’t ask, Vista only tells!